I must admit that I'm a bit behind with my news of the ice-breaker in the Moseltal.
The ice on the River has been gone for a few days now, but back on the 15th, it was still thick, although the temperature was starting to rise. We saw the ice-breaker by accident at the lock in Saint Aldegund, when we were on the way to Somewhere Else. It wasn't as big as I expected at all - probably the size of a large tug, but it did the job O.K. It went very slowly backwards, then the Captain put his foot down and tore forewards through the ice, crunching and breaking it all up into bite-sized chunks.
The sound of breaking ice is as vivid a memory of the frozen River as the sight of it was....
Then as the weather got (a small bit) warmer, the ice started to break down even more and the surface of the River began to move again. Today, there are still chunks of frozen waterfalls left on the land, but the River is clear and the sky was blue and sunny.
I took the top photograph at the same time as the ice-breaker - the poor swans at Alf, standing on the Alf Beck tributary, wondering where all their water went to....
Then off to Foreign Lands at the weekend - we took a spin down to Metz in the land of Pastis and Fish Without BreadCrumbs. We spent a peaceful Sunday morning in Metz Cathedral, after some spiritual guidance with the signposts (it's France remember) and a parking spot. Now I said a while back that I don't like to use the word 'wow', but yep, that's what you just HAVE to say when you step inside. It's so high, there's so much space - more space I think than would be taken up if it wasn't there, if you see what I mean....
Anyhow, the Service was on, the organ was playing and the sunshine was pouring through the stained glass, reflecting blues and yellows and purples on the stone......
After the Service, we wandered around while the organ was still playing and looked at the stained glass windows by Marc Chagall (the bottom one in my photo) - what a wonderful artist he is, 'wow' all over again......
So, soon - (my painting's nearly finished).
Tschüss!
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